Steve Sanetti: Give gun advisers time to advise

Published 5:12 pm, Friday, March 1, 2013

Gov. Dannel Malloy's decision to pre-empt his own Bipartisan Task Force and draft his own set of what he thinks Connecticut gun laws should be, unfortunately, contains numerous factual flaws, which makes them fail the "common sense" test.

We hear, and agree with, the cry that there be "no more Sandy Hooks." From the limited information available, it is clear that Mrs. Lanza failed her primary responsibility to keep her firearms secured from her known at-risk son. Had she done so, this tragedy likely would not have occurred. Safe storage is already the law in Connecticut. The best way to prevent negligent or criminal misuse of any firearm is to deny access to it.

For its part, the firearms industry has expended more than $100 million over the last decade distributing more than 60 million gunlocks and safe storage information to both new and existing firearms owners. They are in the box of every new firearm and in widespread use via our Project ChildSafe® campaign to over 15,000 communities nationwide. We also run the decade-old program called "Don't Lie for the Other Guy" program, which helps stop guns from being put in the hands of criminals. As a result of these and other programs, both violent crime and accidents involving firearms have declined to levels not seen in decades.

While firearms are the only consumer product which requires state police or FBI approval prior to any retail sale, the under-reported fact is that the national background check system badly needs to be fixed prior to any discussion of broadening its application. Mental health records are supposed to be in the system, but many mental health professionals and privacy advocates are opposed to seeing this accomplished.

Working out an effective system will take time and all the stakeholders have to be involved. No matter how well-intentioned, calls for immediate changes that expand the demand on an already-heavily burdened systems won't do anything to improve it. And, of course, so long as criminals obtain firearms by theft and illegal transactions between themselves, background checks will never be "universal."

Many millions of owners of semiautomatic rifles, which fire one shot for each trigger pull, use them safely and responsibly for target shooting, hunting, home defense and collecting. Attempting to define and ban certain features of such rifles, for example a pistol grip, accomplishes nothing and is a distraction. We can demonstrate why this is the case if we can be given the chance to do so.

The most popular firearms sold for a number of years, including the handguns carried by police officers, hold at least 15 cartridges. Persons wishing to purchase a firearm to protect their family from home invasion by multiple assailants determined to do them harm, as occurred tragically in our state a few years ago when an entire family, save the near fatally injured father, was wiped out, understandably look to the police when considering the type of firearm best suited to protect their family. Under stress, police officers and citizens alike often miss their targets, requiring multiple shots to stop attacks. This is one reason why a focus on magazine capacity is misplaced.

Despite misimpressions and mistakes made by the media, semiautomatic rifles are not machine guns or military weapons and are rarely used in crime. In New York City last year, they were involved in just three out of more than 1,400 incidents involving criminal firearms misuse. Requiring permits to own rifles and shotguns, the kinds of firearms least likely to be used in crime, is misdirected. Canada is in the process of dismantling its rifle and shotgun registry, as it has proven wasteful of millions of dollars of taxpayer money without solving a single crime.

Therefore, we would respectfully ask the governor to let the deliberative legislative process work. Wholesale changes in the law that could affect many millions of Americans' constitutional rights need to be carefully considered. He should listen to those whom he appointed to advise him. And our industry, which is so much a part of Connecticut's heritage and continues to directly employ approximately 3,000 of our residents, wants to have a role in finding meaningful solutions to avoiding future tragedies.